Customer Watch: Spring Cleaning Time & Advice on Jewelry Storage

March 25, 2009byCynthia Sliwa

Spring cleaning is a tradition for winter-weary individuals, and organizing one’s closets is typically part of the process. The change of seasons is also the perfect opportunity to review and organize one’s jewelry wardrobe.

In that light, some of the fashion and celebrity magazines, in their April 2009 issues, are providing readers with ideas for jewelry storage. Not all of these ideas are helpful for everyone. Indeed, the ideas are best for someone with a very modest jewelry selection of jewelry.

In Style magazine utilizes a three-tiered cake stand and various plates and bowls on a tray as a system to display pieces “the way top stylists do” so that everything is visible. Shepherd hook earrings are cleverly hooked over the edge of a glass bowl. Vintage ashtrays are perfect ring holders, the editor advises. Using vertical options “like a goblet or tall dessert dish” saves space.

The concept in theory is great, as seeing what one has encourages creative combinations. The truth is, however, that most individuals have way more jewelry than will fit on a few small dishes, and the resulting jumble is going to confuse things, not make it simpler to get dressed. The jewelry is not kept clean, tarnish-free, and protected from an errant spritz of perfume. And if the jewelry starts mounding up on top of the those dishes, contact damage to the jewelry becomes a potential issue.

Glamour magazine features a reader’s write-in tip. The reader used to keep jewelry in the boxes it came in – “total clutter” she wrote. So she purchased a modestly sized multi-compartment jewelry box in which to store her pieces. While the jewelry box is pretty and there’s no doubt that the reader’s heart is in the right place, I have to wonder whether the box has sufficient space to contain her jewelry wardrobe. In the photo illustrating the tip, jewelry appears to be spilling out of the box, and the pieces do not appear to be separated one from another to protect them from scratches and dings. I think the enameled piece shown in the center is at particular risk.

In Style includes a few more miscellaneous ideas, such as the grab-and-go idea of hanging necklaces on decorative drawer pulls affixed to a wall. This works fine for a few items, so long as the owner doesn’t happen to have a curious pet who might find a dangling necklace a fun new toy.

And yes, In Style suggests as a final option that readers might “Consider a jewelry box with lined compartments to store delicate and expensive pieces that require extra care.”

These articles provide a springboard for bringing your customers in for a spring cleaning and repair of their jewelry and your provision of some solid advice on good jewelry storage. Perhaps you might entice your customer to conquer her jewelry wardrobe clutter with a beautiful new jewelry box with multiple compartments to keep her jewelry not only easy to find but also clean and protected.